Good for you! hopefully you make it out when planned this time.July is warmer than June, if you are looking for a bit of a holiday too! June tends to be our rainy month, our pretty much only rainy month -i love it!!

If you get through all testing here theres no reason why you should get that job offer, just be honest on the poly and read up on the written tests, the Norman Halls Police Prep book is a good one and i hear a few are also getting hold of a grammar book which is helping out lots on the other test, the higher your score the better in my opinion......then you have a stronger case if you are weaker somewhere else in the process.

Anyway good luck!

Regarding the shorter courses for UK experienced officers. I have been informed by my file manager that they will be starting in May 08. The exact length of the course has yet to be decided, but it will be somewhere between 6 and 10 weeks. I have had my start date of April put back in order to join the shorter May course, which I have also been told is almost full.
The thought of only receiving 6 weeks training is a bit of a concern, but so is 26 weeks.
If I hear anything else about the course lengths I will post it here.
Regards.

The training is alomost para-military and I am still in training..but all the UK Officers on the previous course love being out on the street here..mostly saying that EPS is very well equipped..there are tons of Officers on each shift and the paperwork is kept at a minimum..They give you top notch equipment too.
You deal with pretty much the same calls as you would in the UK..domestics, pub fights, drugs etc..you dish out lots of traffic tickets because in the main the drivers here are crap and selfish..

A bit like London then?

Can anyone reccommend a good place to stay when i am over for testing? I knwo there are a bundle of hotels to choose from but it's finding one that is reasonably priced and within easy travelling distance of HQ.

I've just checked out flights with Zoom and can get a return for around about £450-£500.

You can try the sandman downtown, lots of people out for training stay there. Its right on the same Ave as all testing and the train within downtown is free so you can go the few blocks within a few minutes at no cost.

Its reasonable, and ok for aplace to put the head down at night. Its right on what we call " crack corner" so you might get to see some fellow cops out there often.

Downtown is the usual city centre hussle in the mid week but dead on weekends....if you are looking for somethng out of downtown you could try http://www.englishbb.com/

Its located in the Dalhousie area (end of thenorth train line). Its around a 10 minute walk to the train which costs $2.50 each eay to downtown......the train would take approx 15 minutes to get you to testing......this place is reasonable and some others out for training stayed there too.
This might be a good choice if you plan on getting a vehicle to tour around, i hear the sandman are charging around $150 for parking for the week, the b&b would be free but dont drive to downtown, youre loking at around $30 for parking down there per day and its the same as most places, unless you know your way in and out it can become pretty time consuming!

Anyway i hope this helps

Ah better than getting to the station and finding your radio is knackered and not been able to find a pool one for hours

So are there or have many ex female Pc's managed to get through? are there any on here by any chance?

Hi
The Sandman was ok as far as somewhere to stay and relatively cheap for the room, just find a nice cafe and eat out most days as the rerestaurantt the hotel gets exexpensivevery night. If you walk a couple of blocks there is a road (17th st or avenue I can't remember which) this has lots of cafes on, Nellies is particularly good. There are places to eat in the +15 which is a walkway inside, it goes all around the buildings.
Apart from the major burst pipe on the momorningf my interview and the hidden car park charges, I could not fault it. There is a gym for you to keep preparing for the PARE and a pool with a hot pool for when you have overdone the stress and training..
Good luck..
Graham

The Sandman is also only a few blocks from the River if you want to go jogging with some nice scenery, avoid the lunchtime rush as it can get fairly busy down there.

Theres also a really nice cafe just a few blocks from the hotel, its on 8th street and 5th Avenue called Tastebuds, its not open on weekends but does do a mean breakfast bagel midweek for around $4, beats the $12 for breakfast in th hotel every morning........

So are there any uk ladies who have gone through or failed (PM me with your stories may be best ) so whats it like for us ladies? I'm pretty fit already but in consideration to what we had to do in the UK to get in!!

PompeyLad liked it to para-military training!! surely there are a few of us able to achieve this? or is there??????

Hi everyone,
my first e-mail here so here goes. Spent the last 23 years(has it really been that long, I demand a re-count!) in the British Army and am now a WO1(ASM). Spent 2 years with the Army in Canada and decided to start the process to move permenantly. Married with 2 kids(10 and 6). My residency application went in Nov 05 and have just been told it will be processed in 3-5 months.
Always fancied the Police and the CPS seems perfect. If anyone has any points to assist me I would be most grateful. Any ex-military out there, PNP program and how quickly it can process current applications etc. I'm about to send my application off and am in Canada working in the summer so am hoping to tie in all my tests if all goes well.
Been looking at julieparry.com and hoping to get in touch with her for property info etc
Great thread and bags of info, heres hoping...............

Hi

We would be more than willing to answer any questions you have regarding CPS, life in Canada etc.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Julie and Eddie

Hi Julie and Ed.
Thanks for getting back to me. I'm just about to have my vision test done next week and then my application will be in the post. I've been looking at your website Julie and am interested in utilising yours contacts and know how. We lived in canada for 2 years 2003-05 and I also have cousins who live in Calgary. Whats the best way for us to communicate further.

Hi Everyone,

We've landed! Anyone on the Zoom flight from Manchester last Saturday, we sincerely apologise for our devil-child daughter who screamed the place to the point of loosening the bolts!!

The sun has shone, constantly, for the whole week and the dream is well and truly alive and kicking, Yippeee!!!

However, we thought it only right to warn you of a little nightmare we've encountered to do with car hire:curse::curse::curse::curse::curse:

We had arranged ours in advance with Budget. Reasonably priced and fairly convenient.
First problem we encountered was to do with my credit card. Because it has Chip & Pin the UK credit companies decline their use above a certain limit unless they have a chip and pin thingy out here. Hasn't caught on yet so my card was declined. It was only for $1,000 deposit with many times that credit limit still available.
I'll pay the $1,000 cash says I... can't do that says they... why not says I... those are the rules says they... see where this is going yet?

As luck would have it, our file manager stepped in and handed his card over. I was deeply embarrassed but neverthe less gratefull because my two children (2.5 and 5) were falling asleep standing up

The Spanish sounding agent passed over the contract for the file manager to sign who instantly queried the insurance - pay attention everyone because here's the point of all this - if you pay by credit card, the insurance is already sorted
She made it quite clear with a shrug and a 'if you want the car just sign the bloody forms' and shoved the pen in his hand.
A week later and we turn up at the airport to convert it from our file managers contract, pay in cash, and use our spanking non chip and pin Canadian credit card and instead of $220 dollars they demand $575:curse:
Not the shrinking violet type I challenge the whole thing! FIVE HOURS LATER and I have the 'duty manager' stating that if the contract has signatures in the insurance bit, than it's tough and he doesn't care! Whilst there, and I had time to observe, they had massive queues that seemed to never get any smaller whilst all the others were virtually empty. I wondered if they were so much cheaper and decided to do a bit of research on prices. No! they are all competitive. It seemed, and became blatantly apparent in the end it was the quality, or lack, of service that slowed the whole process down.

In a nutshell folks do two things before you come out:
1) Make sure your credit card company lets you use the card in a non chip and pin environment.
2) Avoid Budget car hire like the plague!

We're now off to hastily buy a car and continue the house hunt expedition.

Going like mad so please forgive us for not catching up sooner and for any delays in replying to the PM's.

Cheers for now.

Keith & Clan.

Hi & Welcome to Calgary!

Sorry to hear about your issues with the car rental place, we also had issues with budget when a family member out here wanted to rent a car - they booked it in Glasgow and paid fully online but when they got here they demanded a credit card for security, well they didnt have one!! In the long run, likeyourself, after hours in the place, we got the car

When we came out here we got a rental car for the first mnth from Enterprise and the guythere we met was exremely nice, even want ed to meet up with us for a beer!

Anyway, hopfully this doesnt happen to you again and good luck on the car hunt!

Dawn